E-commerce marketing

In this blog post, we shall see the importance of digital marketing in e-commerce and e-commerce marketing tips, techniques and strategies for 2020.

For your e-commerce website or portal, we shall elaborate in detail on how to drive website traffic, generate online leads and convert them into sales.

What is e-commerce or electronic commerce, opportunities and challenges for digital marketers in 2020, e-commerce marketing tips, e-commerce marketing tips techniques to help grow your business and brand value?

The e-commerce market in India is expected to grow to US$ 200 billion by 2026 from US$ 38.5 billion as of 2017.

The value of e-commerce market is expected to cross US$ 50 billion by 2018.

As per the reports from IBEF.org, the main reason for the growth of e-commerce market is the increased penetration of smartphones and internet.

Their report further stated the total number of intenet connected digital devices in India are expected to grow to two billion by 2021, from 1.4 billion in 2016.

As per reports from Mobile Broadband India Traffic Index and Hindustan Times, India has the largest growing number of internet users as per reports.

India is the second largest internet user base in the world, just second behind China, it still has low penetration of e-commerce business as compared to developed countries.

With increased data internet speed and cheaper rates, the pan-India mobile data usage increased from 128 (in PB) to 165 (in PB).

Another interesting statistics revealed by internetlivestats.com we can clearly see the year on year increase in number of internet users in India (see image below)

As per the report, the internet user penetration was 34.80% of total population in 2016

The number of internet user grew at 30.5% in 2016 as compared to 2015

The above data reveals interesting fact in growing number of internet users, mobile devices and data consumption trends in India.

As per reports from ibef.org   growth in the e-commerce industry in India is estimated to reach USD100 billion by 2020 from USD 22 billion in 2015.

As per the digital India mission statement of Government of India

“The Digital India program is a flagship program of the Government of India with a vision to transform India into a digitally empowered society and knowledge economy.”

It is almost very essential for every digital marketer in whichever industrial sector they are, to understand the basis of electronic commerce and have a robust e-commerce business strategy for their business.

So, all the digital marketers in India, must be excited about the interesting facts on digitalization in India?

With increasing amount of digitalization, marketers are now facing extreme challenges across all industrial sectors to effectively, efficiently and creatively reach their target audiences.

“What is e-commerce?”

“What is e-commerce business?”

“E-commerce, electronic commerce or e-commerce is the means by which buying and selling of goods and services online or over internet”

E-commerce facilitates the buying, selling and transacting of goods and services over the internet.

It may be mobile, desktop, tablets, a point of sales (POS) etc.

There are six types of e-commerce:

Business-to-Business (B2B)

Business-to-Consumer (B2C)

Consumer-to-Consumer (C2C)

Consumer-to-Business (C2B)

Business-to-Administration (B2A)

Consumer-to-Administration (C2A)

“What is Business-to-Business (B2B) e-commerce?”

B2B e-commerce means business-to-business electronic commerce, is selling products or services between businesses through the internet.

 It is through an online sales portal.

“What is Consumer-to-Consumer (C2C) e-commerce?”

C2C customer-to-customer, or consumer-to-consumer, is a business model that facilitates the transaction of products or services between customers.

Examples are auctions, classified advertisements. E-commerce websites like OLX

“What is Consumer-to-Business (C2B) e-commerce?”

C2B or Customer to Business means the initiative comes from the customers (consumers) and enterprises are the target group. C2B (Customer to Business) is a term that refers to one of the electronic commerce models. Example Elance

“What is Business-to-Administration (B2A) e-commerce?”

Business-to-Administration (B2A) means public sector marketing which includes marketing of products and services to various government levels – including federal, state and local.

“What is Consumer-to-Administration (C2A) e-commerce?”

C2A is the relationship between citizens of a state with government administration establishments.

In India for example,  Aadhar Card, pan card, voter’s id etc.

From the above, we have understood what e-commerce is and its different types.

How to increase ecommerce website traffic?

How to boost ecommerce sales?

The ecommerce sites are dependent on website traffic for survival. The digital marketer has to explore ways to drive traffic to ecommerce site.

The online marketer needs to apply latest tools and ecommerce traffic strategies in 2020.

There is constant pressure from your client to drive website traffic and suggest ways for how to increase online sales fast.

Now let us understand how to use e-commerce in our business and to do implement it effectively for generating growth of your organization.

E-commerce can be trading or buying and selling of any tangible and intangible goods or services you can think of.

It may include goods such as clothes, watches, smartphones, computer, grocery, pharmacy food delivery, etc.

It includes service such as banking, digital distribution of e-books, software’s, streaming media such as YouTube videos, music, podcasts etc.

E-commerce business in India is regulated by Information Technology Act 2000 for its regulation.

The main benefit or advantages of e-commerce marketing business:

• It is easy to implement new business ideas or small business ideas
• Convenient buying and selling of goods or services
• Easy to find products
• Limited geographical boundaries
• Low operational costs
• Low inventory cost
• Low infrastructure cost

If you already have an eCommerce marketing business and want to expand or grow it and to get all the above-mentioned benefits of e-commerce to your organization, below are some free useful tips that you can apply:

• Create a unique content marketing strategy
• Google always mentions through it blog updates, content  will rule Google search
• Informative, useful and relevant content adding rich value to your website visitors
• Regularly update your customers on your products or new product & service
• Promote your content on your all social media platforms such as Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn, Twitter etc.
• Share images of your products on Instagram, Pinterest. As per a recent study, Instagram gives 25% higher engagement for your products or services as compared to other social media sites as per   Shopify report
• Try different marketing tactics for example “upselling”. In this strategy, you are trying to convince your customer to buy a bit more expensive product than the one they are intending to buy.
• Guess what it works in 20% of cases as per report of Econsultancy
• Deploy local marketing and branding strategy
• If you have outlet or shop then you need to have a good local marketing and branding strategy. Reach out to your customers with Google map location search, ads in local newspapers, promotions at nearby malls etc.

Email Marketing

Harness the benefits of email marketing. Ask for the email addresses of your client visiting your website or store. You can request them for referral email of their friends or relatives who might be interested in your product or services.

Don’t send automated emails

Your emails should have a personal or emotional touch. Try to pay attention to the pain areas of your customers. Highlight on their daily issues or problems. Try to offer a solution.

If your email only mentions about your products or services, chances are there they may straight away get thrashed.

Put the emphasis on your client first always!

Have a responsive e-commerce website design

Top or best e-commerce platforms 2020

To fly your business idea with e-commerce sites you require the right e-commerce marketing solutions. Given below are the best eCommerce platforms for startups or small business:

Magento – they are by far has the largest market share of approximately 24% as compared to other e-commerce websites.

Shopify – they have an attractive design template with over 1500 plus apps in their app store

BigCommerce – they have a mobile-friendly theme with SEO optimization and social media channels integration.

WooCommerce – if you are just starting your e-commerce business and have a limited budget, then WooCommerce is the best business idea. It is free and integrated with powerful WordPress Content Management System.

Sharetribe

The major advantage of Sharetribe is its ease of set up

• They support many marketplace themes
• High-quality inbuilt payment system
• Mobile responsiveness – an important Google PageRank factor
• Adopted by successful brands
• It is not easy to choose from among the above-mentioned platforms. We have discussed only the pros of them. Their limitations we shall discuss in my coming blog post.

If you are new to eCommerce marketing business or want to execute new online business ideas then WooCommerce is a safer choice. It is free, world-class and you can experiment with it. You can also contact us for free advice on selecting the right one for your business.

Pay attention to abandoned carts!

As per Baymard Institute research data, almost 67.45% of shopping carts are abandoned.

These are huge numbers and you cannot afford to ignore them. Study the uncompleted conversion or transaction. There may be a number of reasons behind them such as:

• They have not yet decided
• Not convinced with the pricing
• Looking for better discounts
• Want free shipping
• Their computer or mobile has lost internet connection

Solution

Free Email marketing tip for e-commerce marketing:

• Make an email list of all such clients and send them a personalized email. Ask them to share their review and opinion about the product and services
• Induction a poll opinion is a smart way and analyze views
• Ask for the reason for not buying your product or services
• Offer those freebies, discounts, coupons on the future purchase and free shipping etc.

Have a brand face for your company

People today don’t want to transact with a ghost identity. Have a face of your company or brand. This strategy works and puts trust in your brand.

Include images of your key management at your website, email campaigns or other key department staff.

Add images videos, images of your key staff, any type personalization approach will make your customer feel special. Today customers don’t trust anonymous connections.

Examples of such strategy are the famous brand “D-Mart”, Avenue SuperMarts Limited Mr.Radhakishan Damani. Mr.Mukesh Ambani of Reliance Industries

Have a Facebook Store

Facebook today is one of the biggest social media platforms. But still, many businesses are not fully utilizing its potential and reach.

Set up a Facebook store for your product or service. It is easy to set up and integrates well with all major eCommerce platforms

Have a dedicated email campaign

Email is often not given their due share in your digital marketing strategy. All the best e-commerce sites use it effectively to reach their clients. It might be attracting a new prospect or retaining your existing customers.

As detailed above make it a habit to collect and store email addresses list. There are various occasions and special date when you can have scheduled emails to be sent to your clients, for example, birthday wishes or anniversary greetings.

Timing is very important in your email campaign. For example, just on the arrival of the summer season the inquiry or google search for best air conditioners increases. This is the right time to kick off your email campaign to such prospective buyers.

Promote indirect selling

Indirect selling is another secret weapon on your content marketing strategy. People are not really interested in what you are saying. You have a limited time, space and opportunity to make an effective impression.

Put yourself in your client place and think as you are the direct buyer. What are the factors you will consider before buying the product or service?

• Price
• Quality
• Discount
• Delivery
• Installation
• Warranty
• Guaranty etc.

These are some basic questions you should ask yourself and craft it in your content writing. Try to answer all the possible queries and offer a solution.

Major search engines such as Google, Bing, Yandex, and others are also looking for quality, relevant websites that are offering meaningful answers, information or solutions to the visitors who are coming to their search platform.

Customer Loyalty Program

Customers are valuable assets and a future source of generating sales. Have a loyalty program to your existing customers who have made purchases from your online website. It may be offering discount coupons, free shipping, free e-books etc.

Search Engine Optimization

SEO strategy 2017

Optimize your e-commerce marketing website by following Google webmasters guidelines. Although it is a long-term effort, if you start early you will definitely see the results.  Hire a good SEO expert or best SEO services company in India.

Use social media post

social media sites

Regularly post content on various social media networking sites such as Google+, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter etc. Take out some time to know the current trending topics and put your views on them.

Once you start receiving likes and shares for your post you can then plan your paid advertisements accordingly.

Have a clearly defined goal and social media marketing strategy. Remember developing new social network takes patience and time to deliver desirable results and return on investments (ROI).

Upload how to use your product videos on social media platforms

Installation, setup, implementations or how to use guides provides a valuable role in customer satisfaction. Generally, companies put up guides on the package of the products itself.

But to go one step further and make your customers have a live experience on how to use your product or services is a great idea. Example YouTube videos.

Videos have a great impact and this been established from the growth of videos uploaded on social sites such as YouTube, Vimeo, Facebook.

It enhances the brand reputation and customers feel satisfied with your product & service.

Encourage customers to write product review

Product reviews are very important. It works as a free mouth to mouth publicity or advertisement of your product and brand.

For example, if you are buying latest smartphone launched. We always ensure to read the reviews and on hand experience of the customers who have purchased and used the products.

Alternatively, you can also have a social sharing option for customers for expressing their views or opinion who have purchased your product or services during their exit from your e-commerce site.

Reviews play a significant role in influencing the purchase decision of your prospective buyers.

As per study reports, it may enhance your e-commerce conversion rate by 14 to 76%.

Have a dedicated blog page

Having a dedicated blog page is not only important from the point of view of engaging with your customers. It also helps from SEO ranking point of view.

There are two major advantages of having a dedicated blog at your e-commerce website

One, it updates, educates, informs its customers of your present and a new line of product & services or any new business ideas or products you are planning to launch in near future.

Secondly, by having a good content writing, application of various SEO tools on your blog. You have can expect good results in Google search engine result pages (SERP).

With a neat and clean blog writing, you can create an appealing content and help them to take a call to action by making a purchase at your e-commerce website.

If you don’t have the time or lack the ability to quality and SEO content writing, then hire the services of an SEO company, freelance writer or an SEO expert.

You need to allocate some financial resources and have a budget for managing your digital marketing campaign.

Do competitor Research

One good and effective strategy is to study what your competitors are doing in the market. Follow the sales and marketing strategy of successful companies in you niche products range.

Follow them on social media, visit their websites you will definitely get inputs or best business ideas.

Market Research

 Data analysis is very vital to the success and growth of sales of your products and services. Get an insight of recent industry trends.

With this, you can anticipate the shift in market trends and accordingly make changes in your manufacturing policy.

You can accordingly plan your sales and marketing strategy. Dig in deep into the past performances of your sales and marketing data and anticipate the future trends.

Use creative titles or headlines

Don’t make your contents for search engine consumption. Make them for your customers or visitors visiting your website for solutions. Don’t bother about over keywords optimization.

Instead, focus on useful titles and headlines serving the purpose of your customers

Engage with your clients or customers

Make it sure to have a personal contact or touch with your customers. The example of doing this is having a live chat option enabled on your e-commerce site.

But be careful that someone is always there to attend your customer chat request.

Always reply to comments on your blog, social media sites. It sends out a message to others that your company is caring and ready to pay attention to its clients.

Conclusion

Above were some of the online selling tactics that you can apply to your e-commerce marketing business. Though it may vary from business to business.

Let us know which of the tactics above you have used in your business or share your own online selling strategy.

If you want further details or discuss your company’s e-commerce marketing/internet marketing strategy, please feel free to call us at +91-8879181833 or write us at contact@365digitalmarketing.in.

365 digital marketing is an online marketing agency offering digital marketing services in India (Mumbai, Navi Mumbai, Thane Mira Road, Vasai-Virar, Pune and other parts of India